Writing and connecting

There is a whole world of writing out there. If you write alone, for yourself, then maybe you can stay outside it. But even then, you read, and what you read will affect you, consciously or unconsciously. 

And if you want your writing to be out in the world, then you can't ignore that world, and that world seems to have 'rules' and 'shoulds' about how to write and what. You may react to it in different ways at different times - accept it/reject it, but you can't escape the fact it exists.

But there's still the 'you' that is 'you' alone and the 'you' that has to find your way in that world, and that can mean judging yourself and what you write from that point of view, even when you don't want to. And finding yourself judged by it. Or even excluded by it. Just like life generally, I guess.

And what you write may not be read by others in the way you intended, or may not 'fit'.

Fundamentally, for me, writing is about storytelling. It's about expressing myself and wanting to communicate, connect. Writing has helped me see things differently, to see connections...

This week there has been a lot of new sharing and connecting on Twitter/X, much of which has been inspired by Matthew M C Smith and TopTweetTuesday and I've been really happy to be included and to share.

It's easy to feel that you're not part of the wider world - of writing - or in general. And to cut yourself off, or feel cut off. Some of the things that were shared this week were blogs and websites - and these are ways I can connect - and through Twitter/X.

I've talked about ways forward for me before, but I think now that these points of free access are the way for me. I, like many people, don't have the money to buy all the books and magazines available - much as I would love to, and I'm lucky that I have many in my home that I've acquired in the past, including from friends, and they are still wonderful to go back to.

But, for the future, I can connect via the huge variety of online resources, and likewise contribute and express myself in the same way. 

 

Not there

There's a place, I think - 

a path, an avenue of trees,

and a church at the end

and a graveyard

and behind

there are fields that lead down to the sea

and the light is glowing on the water

and a boat moving slowly

and there are birds

so tiny on the shore

and the distant call of gulls

and I'm walking

and I'm still

and I hear it

and I feel it

and it's where I want to be

and am not.

First published in Seaborne magazine

Normality will return

And those who were undervalued before

will be undervalued again.

And those who were vulnerable before

will be vulnerable again.

And the things we vowed to remember

we will forget.

And the things we vowed to change

will be unchanged.

Normality will return

with all its inadequacies.

And more people will lose the fight.

I've posted this before, but it seems right to post again this week, nationally and globally.

Too early, too late

It was only March

but already bees were on the blossom,

blue tits were nesting,

too many things were happening too soon.

He said he'd heard it on the radio,

The Last Spring - by Grieg,

and I, thinking it a good thing to do,

bought him the CD.

We sat and listened to it together

and he said nothing.

Not thinking, I said it was beautiful

and he said nothing.

The days grew longer

and the time shorter,

the blossom faded

and the blue tits left.

When he died in May

then I knew what it was he didn't say.

First published by Indigo Dreams Publishing